Category: Cooking and Baking

There’s nothing interesting if you follow the same routine day in and day out. Life tends to get monotonous if you go about the same pattern every day.

But, boy do you really need to follow the commands like a robot?

No, you don’t have to. You have reasons, choices, and priorities to help break the routineness of life.

Hurray! Human instincts are still alive!

In my opinion, there are no better reasons than festivals to break this dullness. Celebrations make our lives colorful. And, not so long but at least for a moment or a day, we forget the humdrum of life and usher in the sheer spirit of fun.

Today is Monday and the day of a new post on my blog. It’s really a sweet coincidence, that today we all are celebrating the pious festival of Eid after a month-long fasting.

Breaking the monotony of posting romantic short stories over and over again for the past couple of weeks, this Monday, I’m posting something totally different.

Today, I’m posting my Mom’s authentic Awadhi Biryani recipe, the best chicken biryani recipe, for all those biryani lovers out there and for all my friends, followers, and well-wishers who love making and eating biryani at home.

Mix curd with ginger-garlic paste, garam masala powder, red chili powder, salt, and cumin powder. Marinate the chicken pieces in the curd. Put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Saute onion in a pan till golden brown. Add the marinated chicken pieces, cook and cover until chicken is tender. Saute the preparation until oil separates. Switch off the heat and keep aside.

In a big vessel, take 1 liter of water. Add salt, cumin seeds, cinnamon stick, black peppercorns, cardamom, cloves, and bay leaf. Put the water on the boil. When bubbles form, add soaked rice, and cook on low heat until the rice is semi-cooked.

Strain all the water from the rice. Now, take a flat-bottomed vessel, preferably copper, spread a layer of rice followed by a layer of cooked chicken. Repeat this process until all rice and all chicken is utilized.

Sprinkle mint and coriander leaves and some fried onion slices onto the top layer.

Dissolve some yellow food color or saffron strands in water and sprinkle on the top layer of rice.

Cover the vessel with Aluminum foil without leaving any space for the air to escape. This is necessary for steam buildup and uniform and proper cooking of rice along with chicken and spices.

Put the vessel on very low flame and cook for approximately 45 minutes. Switch off the heat and let the biryani stand on the switched off the stove for an hour or so before serving.

Serve the biryani with mint or cumin raita.

I hope you like this quick and easy biryani recipe straight from my mom’ kitchen. Hope, you’ll make it in your kitchen and enjoy it with your family.

Who doesn’t want to enjoy freshly baked cupcakes, cookies, and bread? Mouthwatering baked treats are everyone’s favorite. We generally get these goodies either from a store or a bakery but have you ever tried making any of them at home, right in your kitchen? Have you ever had freshly baked muffins straight out of the oven, piping hot and fluffy?

Many of us don’t want to try baking at home because it requires quite a lot of preparation and often a tedious task, especially, if you’re not much into cooking.

Why not try something that’s quick and easy. Yes, the recipe I’m sharing today is one of the easiest and quickest vanilla cupcake recipes to try. And, the best thing is it tastes divine, bursting with flavors.

Last weekend, I baked yummylicious, hard to resist fluffy vanilla cupcakes. They were so good that we couldn’t take our hands off and within minutes all six cupcakes were gobbled down. Thankfully, I managed to capture some of the pictures of those mouthwatering muffins just to cherish how beautiful they looked – hot just out of the oven.

So, today, I’m sharing those clicks along with the very easy recipe for my vanilla muffins. It’s easy, quick, and so delicious you can’t resist making them at home. Try it and you will be surprised with the result.

But before I switch into the recipe straight away, I want to give you one quick baking tip that is often overlooked or skipped. Believe me, this tip can not only help you simplify the baking process but assures you a taste – perfectly awesome and divine.

And, the tip is – Always weigh the ingredients first and then use them in your recipe. Weighing the ingredients to accurate measurement is the most significant yet crucial aspect of baking and one can’t and shouldn’t compromise on this. It’s better if you use a weighing scale. If you don’t have one and use spoons and cups for measurement, always convert the grams or ounces into the number or portion of spoons and cups.

You see, how important weighing is for baking. Now, let’s quickly come to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Butter 55 gm

Sugar 65 gm

Egg 1 large

Vanilla essence 1 teaspoon

All purpose flour 98 gm

Baking powder 1 teaspoon (level)

Milk 60 mL (1/4 cup)

How to Make:

Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the egg and vanilla essence.

In another bowl, sieve together the flour and baking powder.

To the wet ingredients, whisk in the flour and milk, alternating with each other, starting with flour and ending with flour. Mix everything but avoid overmixing the batter even if you see some lumps as overmixing causes the formation of gluten. This results in rubbery and hard cupcakes.

Pour the batter into the cupcake molds and bake in a preheated oven for 17 to 20 minutes.

And, here you are…your yummy simple and easy vanilla cupcakes are ready to be grabbed.

Hope you like reading it and I’m sure you’ll love the taste and texture as they come out of the oven. Mine got finished within 15 minutes. Let’s see how long you’re gonna keep them safe 🙂

Who doesn’t want to enjoy freshly baked cupcakes, cookies, and bread? Mouthwatering baked treats are everyone’s favorite. We generally get these goodies either from a store or a bakery but have you ever tried making any of them at home, right in your kitchen? Have you ever had freshly baked muffins straight out of the oven, piping hot and fluffy?

Many of us don’t want to try baking at home because it requires quite a lot of preparation and often a tedious task, especially, if you’re not much into cooking.

Why not try something that’s quick and easy. Yes, the recipe I’m sharing today is one of the easiest and quickest vanilla cupcake recipes to try. And, the best thing is it tastes divine, bursting with flavors.

Last weekend, I baked yummylicious, hard to resist fluffy vanilla cupcakes. They were so good that we couldn’t take our hands off and within minutes all six cupcakes were gobbled down. Thankfully, I managed to capture some of the pictures of those mouthwatering muffins just to cherish how beautiful they looked – hot just out of the oven.

So, today, I’m sharing those clicks along with the very easy recipe for my vanilla muffins. It’s easy, quick, and so delicious you can’t resist making them at home. Try it and you will be surprised with the result.

But before I switch into the recipe straight away, I want to give you one quick baking tip that is often overlooked or skipped. Believe me, this tip can not only help you simplify the baking process but assures you a taste – perfectly awesome and divine.

And, the tip is – Always weigh the ingredients first and then use them in your recipe. Weighing the ingredients to accurate measurement is the most significant yet crucial aspect of baking and one can’t and shouldn’t compromise on this. It’s better if you use a weighing scale. If you don’t have one and use spoons and cups for measurement, always convert the grams or ounces into the number or portion of spoons and cups.

You see, how important weighing is for baking. Now, let’s quickly come to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Butter 55 gm

Sugar 65 gm

Egg 1 large

Vanilla essence 1 teaspoon

All purpose flour 98 gm

Baking powder 1 teaspoon (level)

Milk 60 mL (1/4 cup)

How to Make:

Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the egg and vanilla essence.

In another bowl, sieve together the flour and baking powder.

To the wet ingredients, whisk in the flour and milk, alternating with each other, starting with flour and ending with flour. Mix everything but avoid overmixing the batter even if you see some lumps as overmixing causes the formation of gluten. This results in rubbery and hard cupcakes.

Pour the batter into the cupcake molds and bake in a preheated oven for 17 to 20 minutes.

And, here you are…your yummy simple and easy vanilla cupcakes are ready to be grabbed.

Hope you like reading it and I’m sure you’ll love the taste and texture as they come out of the oven. Mine got finished within 15 minutes. Let’s see how long you’re gonna keep them safe 🙂